


Wormholes, Not Plotholes

by jenna_sais_pas



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant through Season Two(ish), M/M, Pre-Canon, Time Travel, and some really sappy romance, basically me attempting to fix plot holes with poorly shaped time travel bandaids, gratuitous pseudoscience, the garrison being shady
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 03:44:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12696642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenna_sais_pas/pseuds/jenna_sais_pas
Summary: In the infinite vastness of both space and Lance's propensity for finding trouble, it wasn't really surprising that he'd somehow discovered how to travel through time. At least, he assumed it was time travel that had taken him back to Earth, stranded in the desert a year before they'd discovered Voltron. But least six of Lance’s favourite movies deal with time travel, so he knows the basics: don’t let anyone know he’s from the future and don’t try to change anything.However, neither of those are as easy as they sound, particularly when he finds himself staying with an angry and freshly expelled Keith, who has a lot of questions and an even more embarrassing haircut than Lance remembers.Add in an unresponsive Blue Lion, increasingly suspect activity by the Garrison, and the fact that Lance has absolutely no idea how to get home, and the fate of the universe is starting to look like it may be in trouble.————Keith’s had a lot of secrets, told a lot of lies in his life. But pretending not to remember Lance? That was the most difficult one of all.





	Wormholes, Not Plotholes

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this so long ago... I am an old man and season three was a stone cold bitch. This used to be super canon compliant, now it's maybe 60%? 70% if you ignore the VLD writers being more inconsistent than my sleep schedule? 
> 
> And yes, the title is dumb af but I've had this document titled that for so long that I just couldn't part with it. 
> 
> But! This is my Klance Big Bang fic and, as such, has art!! From a wonderful, incredibly, and wonderfully and incredibly patient, person!! You can find the art in the fic or check it out on tumblr [here!](http://gluegunshots.tumblr.com/post/167469700691/surprise-its-blance-burgerlance-jk-this-is-my) Seriously I cannot emphasize how great they are, it looks gorgeous and they have put up with So Much Shit on my end... a true saint.

“I just think we owe it to them, you know. They hosted the ship on their planet for 10,000 years and we repaid them by getting a significant portion of it blown up and then disappearing. I mean, seriously, did we even check up on them, make sure they were going to be okay?” Lance asked pointedly. “Or did we just leave them as an obvious and defenseless target to the Galra.” 

Allura shook her head, looking at the ground. 

“So it probably is a legitimate distress beacon! Frankly, I’m surprised the Galra haven’t already attacked Arus.” 

Keith opened his mouth to argue but Lance cut him off. 

“But even if it wasn’t… Even if it is a false alarm, it’s our responsibility to check anyway.” Lance finished, looking around the room. 

Each member, in turn, nodded their assent, even Keith at last. Allura sighed and turned to the podium, hands outstretched. “Plot a course for Arus.”

* * *

 

The closer they got to Arus, the more apparent it became that the distress beacon had not, in any way, been a false alarm. What first looked like a dark and shifting purple cloud marring the skies of the planet’s atmosphere resolved into hundreds of individual Galra ships, flying together in formation. They were small ships by the look of it, the kind meant to impose and keep up an intimidating presence, not the kind normally sent after Voltron. 

Upon spotting the Galra forces, Allura had sped up the castle’s movements and called out to the team, “They’re still far from the planet’s surface. We appear to have reached Arus just in time. I’ll attempt to intercept them with the ship, you all head to your lions’ hangars.” 

The group, however, stayed put, transfixed by the strange sight they were rapidly approaching. 

“Uh, Princess?” Pidge called out. “It doesn’t actually look like they’re headed to the planet. They’re just kind of… hovering.” 

Lance could see that wasn’t quite the correct assessment. The ships were moving, but so uniformly that it created the illusion of staying stationary, if not for the shifting clouds behind them. It was eerie, the ships moving together in a gridded lineup, some kind of macabre march through the skies of Arus. 

Before Allura could respond, a message came through across the control room’s dashboard. It was in Altean, meaningless to all of the paladins except Pidge, who squinted at it but didn’t look any less confused than the rest of the humans. Allura, on the other hand, had grown still, staring blankly at the message. 

Lance leaned over to Coran and whispered, “What does it say?”

Coran startled, seemingly also enveloped in the message. “Ah, yes my apologies,” he cleared his throat and addressed the whole room. “It’s a message from the leader of the Arusians. They’re saying that the ships have been here for several vargas, circling around their planet and growing closer with each revolution.” 

No one seemed to have any idea what to do with this information, not even Hunk.  

Allura jumped in, responding “Well, it doesn’t really matter. They are Galra ships and therefore malicious. We  _ will _ take them out. Paladins?” They nodded slowly, Allura looking them over one last time before her eyes landed on Lance, narrowing critically. “And Lance? For Altea’s sake, put on your paladin armor for once.” Lance nodded hurriedly, rushing out to Blue as the rest of the group filed to their hangars. 

Lance slid into Blue, beginning the process of starting up and opening the hangar doors. He considered his civilian clothes for a second before deciding to just put on the helmet and chest piece of the armor. It was all that showed on the comm screen anyway. And besides, Lance seriously doubted they were in for a long flight. 

He and Blue exited the hangar, joining what remained of the team. They fell into a straight line, their formation slightly off. Being on the ship was one thing, but being out there flying made Shiro’s absence even more painfully noticeable. The potent lack of their leader was impossible to ignore, flying with Blue at all almost felt wrong. 

But only almost, because it was  _ Blue _ . Blue who was quick to send warm and calming emotions whenever his thoughts strayed. Her presence was probably the only constant in his life at that point, the only thing keeping him sane. The only reason he could stomach being alone—because he never really felt alone with her around. 

Lance shook his head and grabbed Blue’s controls more tightly. The paladins flew closer to the group of Galra ships, their approach cautious and progression unsure. Keith had shared several weeks ago that Shiro had told him to lead Voltron, but Keith’s discomfort with the idea had been more than clear. The team had decided to postpone the discussion until it was necessary but that was coming back to haunt them as none of them seemed willing to fly forward. It made their flight glaringly awkward; Lance could only hope the Galra ships wouldn’t be able to pick up on the shakiness of their advance. 

Against the backdrop of Arus’s calm atmosphere, the Galra ships seemed even more cruel, an ugly bruise on that achingly familiar shade of blue sky. They traveled rigidly, a combing movement approaching the trembling planet below. Their slow descent had not changed pace or direction in the slightest since the team left their hangars; either they didn’t know they were there or they simply didn’t care. 

The lions moved in directly behind the body of ships, preparing to attack. 

“Alright, Team Voltron. Let’s give them hell.” 

No one commented on the slight stutter in Keith’s voice as he said “team”. 

The Red Lion moved first, diving straight into the center of the mass. There seemed to be a second where nothing moved; not Keith, not the Galra ships, not the air itself. 

Then, like a droplet of water disturbing a glassy lake, a pulse spread through the enemy ships and they all folded back into the center, onto Keith’s position. The rest of the group set off to follow him, coming in from three directions. 

The ships themselves were fairly plain, almost rectangular in a design clearly not meant for aerial efficiency. Whatever their true purpose was, though, the Galra seemed to never have heard of defense, as each ship was packing a surprising punch for their small size and utilitarian appearance. 

The explosions resounded through the sky, echoing peculiarly through the sea of Galra ships that had formed around the Paladins. They were surrounded, the number of enemies seeming much more daunting from inside the assembly. 

Lance had no idea where the rest of his team was or what they were doing. Quite literally throwing themselves into the middle of the action was probably the best they plan they had in their current state, though. They were fighting in a complete disarray, scattered and feeling half broken before the battle even began. 

The comms were frantic, half of it passing Lance by completely. He was entirely focused on dodging the seemingly unending assault they had jumped lion-first into, too focused to see the anomaly approaching them. 

Evidently, the Galra ships were not completely uniform; there was one, decidedly larger and more sleek in design, that must have been hidden in the crowd. And it seemed to be focusing its weapons on Lance and Blue. 

He felt, rather than saw, its first hit headed their way. He made to turn around but wasn’t quick enough. Blue shook with the force of it, her tail whipping rapidly in an effort to rebalance. They faced the new ship head-on. 

Keith was still diving in and out of ships, his attempts at moving fast enough to evade the ships keeping him busy. He must have noticed the ship in front of Lance, currently squaring up its next shot. 

“Hey, Lance, check out that ship! It must be the leader or something. Be careful!”

Lance and Blue shot forward, ducking under the ship at the last minute and evading the shot. 

“Uh, yeah, Keith. I noticed.” Lance panted out, twisting around to see the ship propel itself slightly backward, knocked off balance by the shot. He watched as three, four, five other Galra ships were blown straight through by the blast, their wreckage quickly falling out of the sky. 

So much for saving the planet from destruction. 

Sending a short prayer down to the tiny Arusians, Lance continued away from the center, trying to gain a better vantage point on the battle as a whole. 

It appeared that the chaos had been working in Keith’s favor. He and Red had cleared a section of the Galra ships out, moving closer to the center. Pidge and Hunk had paired up, steadily dismantling their own section of the fleet. The further Lance looked though, the more daunting the prospect became. Were the ships multiplying or something? It seemed for every ship Keith blew apart or Hunk dismantled, three more replaced it. 

The main ship still sat in the center of the ships, apparently content to ominously biding its time. 

Lance shot down two minor ships that had trailed him as he tried to gain more altitude. As he watched, Pidge took a heavy shot from below and fell several meters, leaning dramatically. 

“Pidge! Hang on, I’ll cover you!” Hunk called out, turning Yellow in circles desperately as he fought to protect Pidge. 

Lance turned his focus back to the lead ship, trying to figure out how to address it. If it’s speed was the problem, all he had to do was take away its ability to evade. He closed his eyes and connected mentally with Blue, preparing the freeze ray. 

Lance blinked, looking up in time to see Keith suddenly dive towards the center of the ships, where the main ship was hovering. “Screw this!” He screamed, Red twisting around the ship. “We aren’t making any progress, I’m just going to take out the leader.” 

“Keith, no!” Lance shouted back, but Blue’s ray had already fired, hitting the Red Lion squarely as she slammed into the lead ship. 

Pulled so abruptly from his connection with Blue, Lance’s senses blurred. He dove forward desperately, hoping to at least distract the main ship from Keith. The light glinted harshly off its windows as he approached, the purple cold and unflinching. Everything felt too bright, too loud. Blue’s worry for Red mirrored and reflected his own for Keith until the two were inseparable. Lance felt the cold wind of Arus’ skies, heard the screech of Blue’s internal mechanisms pulling out of the dive. 

For whatever reason, the ship did seem most interested in him and immediately turned to face him, pressing forward at an alarming rate. 

Senses somehow both dulled and sharpened, Lance grinned. They were ready for the chase. 

He and Blue twisted and headed up, straight up. The ship was right behind him, gaining each second. Their flight seemed to pulse in time with his blood, the expanse of the sky narrowing swiftly as they approached the edge of the atmosphere. They could feel the pursuer below, shooting futilely at their tail. 

The voices of their teammates vaguely registered, alarmed shouts that faded in and out, feeling more unimportant each second that the chase went on. 

But who was chasing? Who was being chased? Certainly not them. The ship behind them was nothing, a pathetic attempt at an enemy that could never catch them. No, they were not the pursued. They were the  _ pursuers _ , and they would catch what evaded them. 

The edge of skies, the beginning of a black expanse, it all passed by, meaningless. They were chasing a feeling. A strange feeling, but familiar. Strangely familiar. Something that they had to find, and yet, had already found. 

They did not need to look back to know the ship was still behind them. They did not need to look forward to know what lay ahead of them. 

An infinity. An infinite swirl of time and space and a feeling of infinite, intimate, rightness. An infinity entered, an infinity closed. The feeling of breaking… apart…

* * *

 

Lance’s mind shattered and reassembled before he had time to process any of what was going on. His surroundings swirled around him, uncontrollably. Or maybe that was his stomach?

He felt Blue’s absence, violently. The emptiness of his mind echoed, rang back and forth that something was wrong, very wrong. 

He recognized, on some level, that he’d been in a wormhole. He’d never really had the chance to take one in before, so he couldn’t be sure, but it made a strange sort of instinctual sense. 

Not to mention that he was currently staring into an empty expanse of space, no sign of Arus or the pursuing ship, so obviously something had gone wrong. 

He tried to think back to where he had been, what had brought him here. It was a confusing mess, like half of the memories were melted on the edges. He remembered the fight with the peculiar Galra ships, he remembered the big one giving chase. He remembered going up, up…

Gently, with a sort of hesitance, he could feel Blue prodding at his mind, offering assistance. It was strange since she usually did so with no amount of hesitance. 

A series of images flashed through his mind unbidden, filling in the missing pieces. He couldn’t be sure, communicating with Blue was always more of an emotional charades game than any real conversing, but it didn’t seem like she knew where the wormhole came from either. One second they were headed up, towards something that felt like it was calling them, the next they were… wherever they were, and the rest of the team was nowhere in sight.

Oh god, the team! He’d left them there, outnumbered, already down a member… 

_ ”Fuck yeah! That had to be almost all of them!” Pidge shouted. A chain of explosions continued in the background. “Wait, Lance? Lance! Where are you going? Lan…” _

Blue cut him off, bringing to mind something she must have captured. Lance breathed deeply, distantly realizing he had been panting since they emerged from the wormhole. It sounded like Pidge had it handled, like they would be okay. It wasn’t like he’d been contributing much to the fight anyway. 

Lance peered through the windshield, the dim lighting of Blue’s interior casting an eerie glow on his splayed fingers. He looked in either direction, trying to catch a glimpse of anything that might tell him where they had ended up. But it appeared to be totally empty, as empty as space could really be. Just blackness… a couple stars… a really familiar moon… a couple more stars. 

Lance snapped his neck back, too amazed to notice the loud crack it made. Because that moon looked  _ exactly _ like Kerberos. If it had been any other situation, Lance would’ve been sure that it was. But, come on, what were the chances? That the wormhole, the one that mysteriously appeared without any apparent energy source, took them across the literal universe to a few planets away from home? To the one moon that Lance would recognize instantly, had spent hours staring at while researching the Kerberos Mission? To the edge of the Solar System, the very place they’d first taken a wormhole away from Earth?

Actually, thinking about it, that made a weird kind of sense. They’d always assumed a wormhole was a one-and-done kind of deal, but… this one was the exact reverse of the first wormhole he’d ever been through. 

Maybe the person who opened a wormhole could travel backward through it again, by accident? 

But wormholes required a huge amount of energy, it shouldn’t be possible for them to open spontaneously, that didn’t make any sense. It took all of Allura’s focus and a seriously impressive amount of resources for the ship to open one, but as soon as Lance had needed to get out of the Solar System, one had just popped up? 

It was all eerily convenient and scientifically perplexing, but Lance lost the chance to ponder it any further as it finally hit him. 

He was  _ home _ . 

Well, he was probably several billion kilometers away from home, but still. It was unbearably close. 

He did a quick rundown of the situation - the team was (probably) safe, he and Blue seemed to be relatively intact, and he was within hours of Earth. 

That was really all there was to consider. He could see his family again, he could tell them he was okay! He was going home! 

Blue takes off, flying a little slower than normal but still faster than really should have been possible, by Earth’s understanding of physics. 

One of these days, Lance was going to get a straightforward answer on how the lions travelled faster than light without evaporating or gaining infinite mass or some other mathematically predicted doomsday, so help him, God. 

The trip went quickly, though. Too quickly. He had not nearly enough time to prepare to stare straight at Earth again. No holograms or mind meld helmets—this was the real thing. His home, his family, right in front of him. 

Truthfully, he wanted to drop everything. He wanted to run at his family, full speed, and never look back. Go to the beach, see his siblings, hug his mom. 

God, he just wanted to hug his mom. 

But Lance couldn’t help think of what would really happen. He couldn’t stay. Even if he wasn’t the most important member of the team, he believed in the cause and he believed in his friends. He knew that, as long as they’d have him, he could never leave. 

So what? He just showed up at home like nothing was wrong? Realistically, the Garrison had told his family he was dead. It hurt, to confront that, but in all likelihood, his family had already dealt with his disappearance, already had a funeral and said goodbye. As much as he wanted to see them, he had to think about them before himself. It would just be… cruel, to return and then have to leave again. It would hurt them both too much. 

Given the nature of the intergalactic war he was fighting in, the Garrison was most likely right anyway, if just a few years early on his death sentence.

Lance settled in with a deep breath and watched the atmosphere spin above the Earth, trying to spot Cuba, to make any sense at all of the shifting colors. It was almost absurd, trying to divine meaning from this distance. 

The scale of the universe, somehow, hadn’t really hit him until that moment. 

If Lance’s family already believed him dead, wouldn’t it be kinder, better,  _ easier _ , to just… not correct that assumption? 

“Alright, girl. I probably shouldn’t go home, home. But it’s Earth! Where do you want to go?” Lance asked Blue, at a loss for where to go from there. 

He got the sense that Blue was laughing at him. 

“Hey! I know you’re not  _ from _ Earth, but you were here for like…” Lance held up a hand, counting several fingers. “A while, probably. You must have gone somewhere more exciting than that old cave.” 

Up there, looking down on Earth quietly spinning, the resonating sadness he felt from Blue seemed even louder. 

“Right… I’m sure however you ended up there isn’t the happiest story. But, hey! It’s pretty cool that you were right next to the Garrison, huh! Like, the whole time I was there at school, you were just a few miles away!” Lance nodded excitedly. “That’s pretty crazy that you were so close. Space lion next to the space school… what a coincidence,” he trailed off. “Actually, speaking of the Garrison, what if we visited there?” 

Blue seemed to have cheered up, laughing along with Lance that he swore he could  _ almost _ hear in his head, like the way tigers at the zoo chuff. Did lions chuff? Or was it called something else? 

“I bet they’d think it was pretty crazy if I told them I’ve been traveling all around space for… however long now.” Even if Lance had mostly slept through his Intro Relativity class, he knew enough to realize that the amount of high-speed travel he’d done recently made it impossible to know how differently time had passed for him than on Earth. He had most likely skipped at least few days just in getting to Earth from Kerberos. “Last I checked, they couldn’t even fly out of the solar system!” 

Even if Lance wasn’t sure about visiting the Garrison yet, Blue seemed inclined and had begun to fly in closer to Earth. Huh. Maybe she was in a hurry? 

“You know, they might even be willing to help! Like, join the network of allied planets or something. I know Earth’s kinda isolated… and primitive, technologically speaking… but it’d still probably be helpful. And I’d feel a lot better if I had a way of making sure Earth was still okay.” 

The amorphous shapes of color were quickly taking form into continents and land masses and oceans, far quicker than Lance was ready for. 

“I guess I don’t have to convince you, since you’re already flying us there… Garrison it is, then.” 

Green swirls faded into yellow, a color itself shifting.

“The desert. Great. Probably the only thing I  _ didn’t _ miss about Earth.” Lance groaned. 

All too quickly, Blue touched down in the sand, surprisingly gentle. After the hours spent in near darkness, the sand was blindingly bright. Lance squinted, one arm above his eyebrows as he stepped out of Blue.

He took off the chest piece and helmet and set them in the pilot seat, glad he’d kept on his normal clothes for once. 

A sharp crack marked a successful back stretch as Lance looked around. “God, that feels good. Thanks, beautiful.” 

He patted Blue on the side of her face as he stood and could feel a small purr vibrating fondly in his mind. 

“Well, welcome back to the desert!” He gestured wildly around them before leaning in to whisper into her mechanical ear. ”You haven’t missed much,” he stated conspiratorially and stepped back. Lance gazed around, looking for some indication of where, exactly, they were in the desert. Blue seemed to have a specific destination in mind, but the only things in sight were a few sand dunes to the left and a cave to his right. 

Blue gently nudged him, moving her front paw in a strangely adorable pat. Lance looked down at her, then to the cave, then back at her. 

“You… want to go back in the cave?”

Lance felt a rush of agreement from Blue, startling him. 

He shrugged and motioned forward, “Lead the way, I guess.”

Whether it was her intention or not, when they got closer to the cave, Lance realized that they were actually in walking distance of the town that surrounded the Garrison, a gas station just barely visible against the horizon. 

Blue stepped forward and bent down, appearing to sniff the ground. She turned around in a circle once, twice, then promptly laid down, her head moving forward to rest on her paws. 

Oh man, that was  _ adorable. _ How had he ended up being adopted by a giant mechanical space cat, again?

Blue lifted her head briefly to flash her eyes at him, the opposite of a subtle ‘get a move on’. Lance chuckled and headed out of the cave, waving goodbye to Blue as he left. She didn’t acknowledge him visually, but he could still hear a faint purring. 

Standing outside of the cave, the sun beat down on him strongly. He had started sweating heavily the moment he’d entered the sun’s view. The humidity had to be close to 100%, the air thick and muggy. It was unbearably, intensely, blindingly hot. 

It was incredible. 

Lance couldn’t  _ believe _ how good it felt to feel the sun’s rays again, to feel them so strongly. He would’ve gladly moved into a shack in the desert like a dropout hermit at that moment, so happy to feel the burning edge to Earth’s warmth. 

The town beyond the cave was peeking out, the gas station’s antiquated sign glinting and shimmering in the heat. 

Lance had come to the desert to talk to the Garrison, to make an alliance, to do important Paladin business! But first… 

_ Earth food. _

His mouth watered at just thought. Sending a silent apology up to Hunk, he set out to find the closest food. 

It turned out to be a diner only a couple blocks from the edge of town. It didn’t appear to have a name, simply labeled in dying neon lights as “The Diner”. Lance guessed that, in a town that small, there was no need for beating around the bush. 

Still, it lived up to the title, complete with a jukebox, faux leather booths, and a soda bar with a couple of high school couples seated in stools. Someone alert Norman Rockwell that America was still alive and well. 

Lance pushed his way into the diner, a quaint tingling announcing his presence. He was immediately hit with the smell of gloriously greasy American food. He tried not to think too hard about his mom’s cooking and focus on the food he  _ could _ eat, the food that was right there. A waiter walked past with a full plate of fries and suddenly it wasn’t so hard a task. 

Lance grabbed a small corner booth and looking over the menu already placed there. A waitress walked up, a nondescript name tag offering some nondescript name that left Lance’s memory as soon as he finished reading it. It didn’t really matter as soon he was two-handed shoving a ridiculously greasy burger straight into his mouth. It was so  _ good _ —hot, meaty, salty,  _ not goo _ . In short, it was fucking  _ orgasmic _ .

He also indulged in some people watching while he ate, staring out the window. No one did anything particularly interesting as they passed, but it was still nice. Because he was people watching actual  _ people _ —actual humans! Not weird slime creatures or tree spirits or evil purple space cats, but real, live, vibrant and silly and intrinsically  _ home _ , humans.

The waitress seemed wary of him and had left him alone to enjoy his burger and aimless staring. His gaze traveled around the diner, taking in again just how bland it was. The whole town, really. Lance had snuck out here, of course, while at the Garrison, but he’d never seen the town during the day. It both was and wasn’t what he was expecting, really. 

The town itself was small, nearly eclipsed in every way by the Garrison’s campus and facilities. And the town had come second, so really, that made sense. 

Most of the people that lived there had come because of some connection to the Garrison—physicists, pilots, mathematicians, astronomers, engineers, doctors, one single therapist for the entire staff. All people with doctorates who acted like it. So in general, it was a very intellectual town. That meant it could border on ruthlessly efficient at times. Like the diner just called “The Diner”—why call it anything other than what it was? 

The streets of the town surrounding the Garrison were obsessively clean, kept tidy by the countless obsessive personalities residing inside. Trivia Night at the library was a town-wide event and got downright scary, to the point it had to be moved to the abandoned strip club across the street to accommodate how many people were coming. It was all very sterile, stores had no individuality but existed to serve a purpose. Cars were obsolete, almost everyone biked or drove a hydrogen-fueled hovercycle of their own design. 

Of course, not everyone was like that. There were other people who lived in the town—spouses and children, mostly, who operated the local businesses. Even the occasional unlucky tourist who passed by but got stopped along the way. Those who didn’t work for the Garrison, however, still made their money from it, if somewhat indirectly.

See, ten years ago, the Garrison had started offering tours. Shitty, overpriced tours that were almost more of a joke than the idea of touring the Garrison in the first place. But they became popular, popular enough to support a mild tourism industry. The local “gas store and food market” started offering fighter jet keychains; the grocery store started vending freeze-dried “astronaut food”; the used bookstore added both an aeronauts section and a conspiracy section. 

That was the thing about the Garrison—there were more conspiracy theories about their research than actual theories produced by their research. It was common knowledge that the Garrison was the definition shady, the government’s dumping ground for illicit research after Area 51 was closed. 

So the tours became less of a joke and more of an ironic selling point. The local “clothing retailer” started selling t-shirts that said “I toured the Garrison and survived. That’s it.” It was kind of like saying “I toured the Kremlin”, the amount of gossip and prestige that surrounded the place. 

Lance had never really paid attention to the rumors while he went there, too focused on studying and making friends. A lot of things just seemed not to penetrate the razor-lined walls of the Garrison. 

A flickering television mounted in the corner of the diner caught Lance’s attention, the weather report being delivered stone-faced by an aging white guy gesturing impassionately at a green screen. God, Lance had missed Earth.

The volume was off and the subtitles were a bit hard to read, but Lance could have sworn they were talking about how the upcoming winter was set to be the coldest one in Arizona’s recent history.

Which, weird. Because they had said that about  _ last _ winter. Or, at least, the last winter Lance had spent on Earth. 

The weatherman finished up and passed the show off to some young woman reading the news blandly. Lance almost looked away, thinking about the weather, when he noticed a familiar face on the screen. Strong jawline, boyish grin, impeccable eyeliner…  _ Shiro? _

The whole thing felt so surreal, Lance felt a strong urge to run up and grab a newspaper for the date. Maybe he could ask the waitress for the date and then mysteriously ask for the year instead. Every time travel movie Lance had ever seen was flashing through his mind. But really, it didn’t take much else to be sure. 

Lance remembered that exact report, watching it on a tablet at the Garrison at night, trying to figure out what had happened to his hero. He was really quite sure that he’d somehow managed to end up in the past, exactly a year before he’d finally found Shiro. 

But at least six of Lance’s favourite movies dealt with time travel, so he knew the basics: don’t let anyone know he’s from the future and don’t try to change anything. 

Lance slapped a few GAC on the counter and fled the diner, not staying to watch the waitress’s confused reaction. If things were really in as much shit as he thought, it probably wouldn’t be long before Earth ran on Galra Approved Currency anyway. 

He called out to Blue but got nothing in response. The silence brought forward an odd realization; Lance had no idea what factor distance played in their bond. He’d never actually been far enough away from Blue to test it. He’d always assumed it was some kind of metaphysical force but he saw now he really had no basis for that. And he had no idea where Blue had gone, if she was still in the cave, how to even get back to the cave. 

No other ideas, he set off in the direction of where he thought he’d come from. The uniformity of the town was making it hard to discern that, however, and instead Lance found himself cutting through various streets hoping to catch a glimpse of the expanse of the desert. 

A quick shout echoed out from an alley as he passed it, grabbing his attention. It looked to be the back entrance to an auto repair shop. He took a couple of steps backward and checked his surroundings before peeking down the brick walls. 

It was surprisingly well lit for an alley, which was perhaps the undoing of the guy with his face turned to the wall, hands behind his head and two guns pointed at it. 

The two men behind him looked to be Garrison officials, the closest thing this town had to cops. 

Lance thought there might have been a sheriff’s station at one point but now the area was entirely patrolled by Garrison officers. Presumably, the town was still under county jurisdiction but it wasn’t surprising that local law enforcement had seen they weren’t needed in a town basically filled with trained government agents. 

Neither of their faces were familiar to Lance but between the aimed weapons and the discarded hoverbike on the ground near the other guy’s feet, he was able to piece together the situation pretty quickly. 

All three of them had their backs to Lance and had yet to notice him. He edged closer, trying to catch what they were saying. 

“You don’t seriously expect us to believe a delinquent like you owns a bike like that, right kid?” The taller of the two officer asked brusquely, tilting his head at said bike. 

The other officer, a short but sturdy guy, nodded along with his partner. “Just admit you stole it so we can all get on with our lives, okay?”

The kid in question took a careful step, turning around to address the officers. As his face slowly came into view, Lance almost bit his tongue in surprise. 

He was wearing an unfamiliar expression, looking more scared and timid than Lance had ever seen, but it was, without a doubt, Keith.

He opened his mouth and Lance had never feared for anyone more in his life. There was absolutely no way  _ Keith _ , of all people, was going to be able to talk his way out of this. 

Lance let out a deep sigh and stepped into the alley. He smiled widely at Keith and called out, pretending not to see the officers. “Keith! There you are! Thank you so much for picking up my bike for me, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get it from the shop before they closed.” He walked forward confidently, reaching a hand out to grip Keith’s shoulder. “You’re a lifesaver.”

The bewildered look he got from Keith would have been an instant classic, had it not immediately put Lance’s plan in jeopardy. He tried to subtly raise his eyebrows and communicate for Keith to just go with it. Luckily, the two pistols still focused on him seemed to persuade him, even if Lance was unable. 

Keith began nodding, one eye still kept on the officers. “You’re, uh… you’re welcome,” he stuttered out. 

Lance rolled his eyes internally and shifted around, pretending to notice the two men for the first time. “Oh! Officers, hello! Is there something I can help you with?”

They turned to fully focus on Lance, the leader of the two narrowing his eyes. Lance heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him, Keith apparently still nervous. 

Lance, however, simply smiled back at the suspicious gaze. He’d learned long ago that for mid-ranking officers like these, the only thing required to get what you wanted was confidence. Long nights of sneaking out to and back from bars under the all-seeing gaze of the Garrison had helped him refine the strategy. 

The shorter officer squinted at Lance, looking him up and down. Probably trying to determine how old he was and if he was a student. There weren’t really any teenagers in the town that didn’t go to the Garrison, which made both him and Keith suspect for being out during the day. For his part, the officer didn’t seem to be able to peg Lance based on appearance, though. He idly wondered how much he’d changed since leaving earth, if their experiences had made him look as old as he felt. 

Lance decided to play on this confusion, taking a purposeful step forward to shake the shorter officer’s hand. The man took it hesitantly, looking over at his partner for guidance as he lowered his gun in the process. There didn’t seem to be a working dynamic between the two, something that made Lance smile. 

The other officer cleared his throat and asked, gesturing in Keith’s direction, “Is that your bike?”

Lance’s smile widened as he nodded, “Sure is! Got her when the bonus from my promotion came in. I sent one of my students, Keith here, to come grab it for me while I packed up for the day. You know, the hours that come with being a senior officer are rough,” he leaned in, faux whispering to the officers, “but the pay is  _ definitely _ worth it,” he finished, topping it off with a wink. 

The officers exchanged glances with each other, looking more and more unsure with the situation. The taller started to speak, but Lance carefully cut him off.

“But thank you for making sure it was kept safe! Say, who do you guys report to? I’d like to let them know how well you guys have been doing your job, tell them how diligent you’ve been in your work.” Lance continued, looking pointedly at the gun in the other officer’s hand.

“Uh, Martins. We work for Martins,” the officer still standing with Lance answered.  

Lance barked out a laugh, “Oof, Martins! That’s rough, no wonder you guys are out here in the middle of the day. He’s a tough one, alright.” He lowered his voice and smiled slightly, “what did you guys do to get stuck on patrol duty, huh?” 

The taller officer’s eyes widened finally looking as concerned as his partner.

Lance laughed again, waving one hand in his direction. He took another step forward, standing straight and speaking directly to the officer. 

He had to look down slightly—it seemed he had grown while in space. Nice. 

“Relax, I’m kidding,” he threw out, shrugging. “I’ve known Martins for years, he’s an easy one to piss off. I’m sure as long as you guys keep doing your jobs, you’ll get off patrol duty in no time.” 

Lance reached out, putting a hand on the shoulder the officer was still aiming at Keith with. The officer flinched slightly but lowered his weapon.

Lance smiled widely, taking a step back to look at both of the officers again. He swung an arm around Keith’s shoulders and tried not to react to his subsequent flinch. “So thanks, but I’ve got the situation covered. Why don’t you guys run along, okay? I think I saw an old lady jaywalking on my way here, you can probably still catch her.” 

The officers looked at each other again before nodding and beginning to hesitantly walk away. 

Lance brightened his smile, waving blithely at them as they headed off. “See you guys around!” The shorter one flinched and both picked up their pace, eventually turning the corner and walking out of sight. 

With a loud sigh, Lance turned back around to Keith and smiled, taking his arm back from his shoulders. 

“Rookies, am I right?” 

Keith was just staring at him, looking bewildered. It was unnerving; usually, if he caught Keith looking at him it was with a glare. Finally, he cleared his throat and asked blandly, “Who the fuck are you?”

Lance blinked. “Ah, come on! The name’s Lance! I go to the Garrison with you? We’ve had like six classes together?”

Keith just looked more confused. “Then why were you pretending to be an officer? Which, by the way, you’re obviously not, I know all of them.”

Lance rolled his eyes, muttering  _ teacher’s pet _ . “Uh, why do you think? To keep your dumb ass from getting shot. You know, I’d expected a little more gratitude for that actually. Did you just assume they wouldn’t dare to shoot the Garrison’s golden boy?”

Keith lowered his eyes at that, glaring at the ground. “I’m not really in the Garrison’s favor right now. Decking an instructor in the face tends to do that.”

“Wh-wait, that’s why you got kicked out? You punched Iverson? Holy shit dude, that’s awesome. I always assumed you just got broody and left.” 

Keith looked back up at that. “How did you already know I got expelled? It literally happened, like, two hours ago.”

Shit. Lance waved his hand at that, trying to appear confident in his answers. “Pssh, word travels fast at the Garrison, everyone knows that.” Lance cast his eyes around, trying to find something to shift the conversation to. “They were right though, it is a nice bike. How’d you afford it?”

Keith shrugged and answered nonchalantly, “Oh, no, yeah. I definitely stole it.”

Lance stared back, resisting the urge to facepalm. Fucking Keith. “Of course you did. Right. Naturally.” 

“Alright so, what, am I like in debt to you now? Do I have to join your gang?” 

“What the…” Lance wheezed, “No! What the fuck dude, this isn’t some bad 21st-century drama, Jesus. Do I look like a gang recruiter to you?” He gestured at himself, noting with interest that Keith followed the motion, indeed looking him up and down rather slowly. 

“Well, why’d you help me then?” Keith asked, looking as though admitting as such was physically painful.”

“To be nice, hard as that apparently is to believe. I didn’t particularly feel like watching you get arrested and/or shot, man. And street officers are dicks, so it always feels good to get one up on them.”

Keith nodded in agreement at that. 

“So, booted from the Garrison and turning to crime only two hours later. That’s a pretty fast turnaround, even for a pilot like you.” 

“Yeah, well, the only place I’ve got to back to is too far to walk.” Keith tilted his head at the bike, “And it was pretty.”

So Keith was about to move into his shack. God, this whole time travel thing had some weird timing. He didn’t have much of plan beyond ‘find somewhere to make a plan’, but right now Keith had been thrown into his path and it seemed a waste to ignore that. Maybe Keith would even let him join him in the hermit shack until he could figure out how to get back. But getting Keith to trust him enough for that, without the presence of an unconscious Shiro or a magical flying lion, was going to be tricky. “Can’t argue with you there. But it’s a little bit different from the simulators at the Garrison. You sure you can fly it?”

Keith glared at Lance, laying a deliberate hand on the bike. “Of course,” he answered, taking the bait easily. 

“Oh yeah? You sure?” Lance asked, inching closer to Keith.

“Better than you could, absolutely.” Keith’s smirk was dangerous, sharp and widening. 

Lance laid a hand of his own the bike, stepping right up to Keith and gazing down. He smirked back, “Then prove it.”

Keith lifted his other hand, moving over Lance’s. He paused, hovering over it, before reaching all the way over to start the bike. In one motion, he swung a leg over the seat and started the hoverbike, moving swiftly out of Lance’s grasp. He stumbled a little, recovering to glare over at Keith.

To his surprise, he had only moved a few feet away and was watching Lance as the bike idled. “Well, you coming or not, pretty boy?” He held out a hand and, god, had the audacity to fucking  _ wink.  _

As Lance grabbed his hand and fell onto the bike behind Keith, hands wrapping tightly around his waist, he had only one thought: _ Oh no. _

**Author's Note:**

> It's looking like there will be four chapters of this, although that may change. This work will go to an important point in the story and then the plan is to take a break and continue in a new work, of which there will eventually be three. Sorry. Consider yourself warned that this is going to be A Long One.
> 
> Again, please check out [Luna/gluegunshots](http://gluegunshots.tumblr.com/post/167469700691/surprise-its-blance-burgerlance-jk-this-is-my)!! Thanks and see you next time!


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